A steel production cycle is known, complying with the secondary steel making method, which uses iron scrap for regenerating it and obtaining new steel. The core of the secondary steel making is the Electric Arc Furnace (EAF), wherein the scrap is molten.
A common electric arc furnace basically comprises a stack, composed by a melting pot for collecting the molten steel, a covering roof which can be opened, three electrodes, which lower through the roof and a fume plant. In the arc furnace, a slagging door is provided, typically located on the vertical wall of the furnace stack in communication with the interior of the furnace through a tunnel. Such a slagging door is used to periodically remove the slag, as well as for other activities, such as loading additives, collecting samples, measuring the temperature, inserting ports and oxygen injectors, and also for inspecting the interior of the furnace.
A furnace according to the prior art is disclosed in WO 2006/016201 A.
The present invention is directed both to optimizing the slag removal operation, which tends to build up in the tunnel, if any, or at the slagging door threshold, as well as to the separation of slag splashes, which are projected on the closing panel of the slagging door, and to pushing the scrap building up at the tunnel so to allow an easy access and the vision of the interior of the furnace.
Slag removal systems are already known, made of horizontally-moving pushing elements or horizontally rocking arms, whose efficiency is insufficient, though, as well as vertically moving closing panels of the slagging door, on which, however, the slag separation action is poor.
Therefore, it is the object of the present invention to provide an apparatus, which carries out the slag removal, the threshold cleaning and the scrap pushing actions, as well as the slag separation from the top closing panel of the slagging door, eliminating all the drawbacks of the prior art and optimizing said operations.